


Green

by regencysnuffboxes (malicegeres)



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Post-Eden, Snake Curse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 16:37:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18265226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malicegeres/pseuds/regencysnuffboxes
Summary: [Crawly] had gotten the whole 'crawl on your belly' lecture from Her before talking to the angel, but he had actively avoided giving it any thought until he set out east of Eden on his own. He traveled as a snake for a bit, but a snake's body wasn’t suited to the damp rain and the mounting cold of Earth's first storm ... He changed back into his true form, but he felt something… stick.





	Green

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for an askbox writing meme on Tumblr, found [here.](http://crowleyraejepsen.tumblr.com/post/182275991618/the-letter-ask-can-we-combine-n-and-x-with-our) I've been meaning to archive this f o r e v e r and was reminded of it today so here you go. Have fun lol

Crawly could hardly believe it when he saw how green Eden was. He supposed it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise; after all, he'd helped with a bit of the planning back before the War. It was just that Hell had been all the colors of stone and fire, all blacks and reds and yellows with the occasional searing blue or white. It was hot and barren, and the only things with any color of life Crawly ever saw were his own bright green eyes reflected back at him. Green had become the only proof he had that God's wrath hadn't burnt all the life out of him, and when he got to Eden and saw the green of his eyes repeated in the leaves and the grass for miles around he'd nearly wept with joy.

Now God's wrath had struck again.

He'd gotten the whole 'crawl on your belly' lecture from Her before talking to the angel, but he had actively avoided giving it any thought until he set out east of Eden on his own. He traveled as a snake for a bit, but a snake's body wasn’t suited to the damp rain and the mounting cold of Earth's first storm. What he needed was his own shape, a shape that could warm itself up as long as his blood was pumping. He changed back into his true form, but he felt something… stick. Like he couldn't turn back all the way.

The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't shake the damp cold seeping into his bones, not even when he started moving at a run to get his circulation going. "That'ssss funny," he muttered to himself when he stopped, and then his eyes widened as he realized what his tongue had done. "That'ssssss funny," he tried again, louder. Then he said, "Sssssshit."

He looked down at his hands and was relieved to see that they were, in fact, still hands, still as free of scales as ever. A mirror appeared in one of them and his relief turned rancid and dissolved into the pit of his stomach. Desperately, he tried on as many forms as he could think of, testing his tongue and checking his eyes each time, but he always hissed, he was always cold, and his eyes were always the same shade of yellow he'd come to hate in Hell.

Crawly took the rest of the afternoon to panic and mourn, but one thing he'd learned watching the demons who gave in completely to despair was that it wasn't something you could really pull yourself out of again. Not if you were damned, anyway.

By sundown he was thinking about Eden again. He'd probably never see a shade of green like that—like him—again. But there was green on Earth, he knew. It didn't matter whether it was his green, because the presence of any green at all meant that he wasn't in Hell, and that was the important bit. Besides, what was Eden but a smaller version of Heaven? There was no point in clinging to something like that when the real thing had been such a bad fit for him and its miniature had worked out almost as poorly for someone as fun to talk to as Eve. And that angel... Aziraphale, was it? He'd been alright. More than alright, he'd been kind.

Plants grew by the water, and the humans needed water, so there was every chance the angel had followed the humans there. Earth had life on it, and a friend, and after pissing God off so royally he was sure Hell would let him stay. He smiled to himself and, unable to shiver against the bitter cold of desert night, Crawly made his slow way out into the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr at [crowleyraejepsen](https://crowleyraejepsen.tumblr.com)!


End file.
